Trump-Putin summit: Russian president calls the U.S. anti-missile system as “dangerous situation”

Despite foreign media’s reported earlier on Monday that the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki would put high on the agenda the topic of anti-missile shield in Deveselu, Romania, there was not an official agenda tackling this issue, yet Vladimir Putin has briefly mentioned the shield topic during the joint press conference with his American counterpart.

“We think it’s necessary to work together for a disarmament agenda, for military and technical cooperation. We refer here to the extension of the Treaty for strategic arms reduction, the US global anti-missile defense system is a dangerous situation, which breaks the IFN Treaty. And of course, we are working to prevent the deployment of weapons in outer space,” Putin said.

The missile shield in Deveselu might be a hot points on the agenda of the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki today, a Kremlin official had claimed earlier on Monday,  as quoted by TASS.

Yuri Ushakov, the Russian presidential aide stated before the summit that Trump and Putin said that„may also raise the topic of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, including in the context of the United States’ deploying in Romania launching pads capable of firing not only interceptors but also smart Tomahawk missiles.”

“Our measures on strengthening the national defense potential is a reaction to the United States’ global missile defense system targeting to devaluate Russia’s nuclear forces. The Russian side has been repeatedly reiterating its commitment to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty and has completely implemented its liabilities under it,” Ushakov also said.

Kremlin claimed in the past that the Deveselu military base might be easily transformed in a place whereof NATO can launch missile attacks against Russia, an accusation repeatedly denied both by NATO and Romanian officials.

A year ago, Russian Ambassador to Bucharest Valeri Kuzmin said in an interview to Realitatea TV that the Patriot defensive missile system, which Romania wants to acquire from the Americans, could be deployed to defend foreign military bases.

“It’s your decision within NATO, based on your strategic partnership with the US. What forces are these Patriot missiles going to defend you from? I can state, officially, that Russia is in no way a threat to Romania. Actually, the defensive weapons would be deployed to defend foreign military bases, especially elements of the US anti-ballistic strategic system at Deveselu. This is Russia’s analysis,” Valeri Kuzmin said.